Mike Pelfrey’s final line vs the Phillies the other night was 2.0/IP 8/H 7/R 6/ER 1/BB 1/SO. The last time Pelfrey failed to pitch more that 2 innings in a start was July 19th of last year at Arizona where his final line was 1.1/IP 7/H 6/R 6/ER 2/BB 1/SO. A game the Mets lost by a final score of 13-2. The starting catcher that day? Rod Barajas.
After that game the consensus was that Pelfrey needed to get back to establishing the fastball. Barajas saying that unlike earlier in the year when Pelfrey was great with the fastball and was basically just fastball, split. Now he was Ball 1, Ball 2 with the fastball and the split hasn’t been as effective seemingly coming out of his hand out of the strike zone.
Former Mgr Jerry Manuel had this to say following Pelfrey’s outing. “He’s not a finesse guy,” Manuel said. “He’s not a trick guy. He’s a power sinker guy, and that’s what he’s got to get back to.”
Here is the SNY PostGame video of that July 19th 2010 game courtesy of Metsblog.
Notice how Pelfrey put the responsibility squarely on his shoulders. Which is why I was so disappointed to see Pelfrey this time around in saying the fault lies with him he did so by blaming his young catcher Josh Thole who has started all of 70 games at the big league level for calling the wrong pitches and Pelfrey not shaking him off.
His comment was quickly followed by Terry Collins reaching out to both Pelfrey and Thole to keep those things in-house. Collins saying “I wanted to make sure the discussions were with Mike and not you guys,”
Some of the things Pelfrey said during his postgame were:
Pelfrey: “I felt like a lot of the times I fell behind you know with my 3rd and 4th best pitches.”
Pelfrey: “I got beat you know a couple of times on those pitches instead of getting beat with the fastball and my split. I threw 3 splits tonight I thought split was really good I only threw 3 of them in.”
Reporter: Is it something you have to work on you have to look at tape and see if it’s only mechanical?
Pelfrey: I thought mechanics were fine. I just thought that I screwed around too much. Too many sliders and too many curveballs. Especially coming out throwing 2 of the 1st 5 pitches were curveballs. I can’t do that. Obviously that’s not my game I got to use the fastball and I got to use the split and like I said I didn’t use the spit until the 4th inning. You know the last of the 2nd so, I just wasn’t very good tonight and approach was probably most of it.
Reporter: What was your approach? Why do you think you was going to those pitches instead of your strengths?
Pelfrey: Ultimately it’s on me. I went along with everything. I didn’t shake and it’s totally on me which I am the pitcher and it’s totally on me for going along. Obviously I didn’t make pitches. I fell behind in the count and I threw fastballs when they were in fastball counts when they were looking for.
Audio courtesy of WFAN.com
Terry Collins on the other hand said he disagreed with Pefrey’s idea that his problem was about pitch selection and felt it was something entirely different. “It’s location,” Collins said. “It came down to Mike just didn’t make the pitches he wanted to make. He was angry because he didn’t make the pitches, and it’s human nature to say, ‘I wish I had done something else.‘”
Collins is right that Pelfrey in the end didn’t execute his pitches but I have to wonder. Is he is also trying to protect his young catcher just a bit as well?
According to MLB Gameday which I admit not the most trustworthy when it comes to breaking down pitch types & Baseball-Reference. Pelfrey threw on April 6th vs the Phillies:
- 50 pitches
- 31 strikes
- 19 balls
- 3 swing & misses
- 8 called strikes
From those 50 pitches the breakdown among pitch types was:
- 21 Sinkers
- 8 Four Seam Fastballs
- 8 Splitters
- 7 Sliders
- 6 Curveballs
If you agree that Pelfrey is a Fastball, Splitter type of pitcher and that is his strength then you can make a case that while Pelfrey was wrong for publicly calling out his catcher. He may be right that he is not pitching to his strengths. Tomorrow both Thole and Pelfrey will sit down and go over the video to see what they can do to correct whatever it is that needs correcting. In the meantime all we can do is hope that Pelfrey can right himself and give the Mets the much needed innings from him that is required.
7 comments
rustyjr
4/8/2011-6:46am at 6:46 am (UTC -4)
The man is clearly frustrated, I tweeted with Kevin Kernan yesterday and he feels like Mike was most comfortable with Rick Peterson
TRS86
4/8/2011-7:37am at 7:37 am (UTC -4)
I did not really see it as him throwing Thole under the bus. Oh well I am always the one in denial anyway.
metsfan4decades
4/8/2011-7:55am at 7:55 am (UTC -4)
I was waiting to see how many picked up on the question mark concerning young Thole calling a game.
I don’t know if Thole’s inexperience comes into play or not. If it does, and he wasn’t calling for what pitches were warranted in certain situations, then what is the problem with Pelfrey? I heard that interview right after the game with Pelf. He feels he wasn’t pitching to his strengths. So Thole aside for a minute, why didn’t Pelf do just that? He’s not young Niese out there who probably still needs that to a good extent.
And TC’s followup comments that he didn’t agree with Mike is even more disconcerting. TC said they would sit down and review the tapes but his initial conclusion is it was location.
I don’t know which is worse right now:
- Pelf and Thole possibly being out of synch with neither having a clue how to correct that
or
- Pelf not having command of his pitches and being able to locate them.
On a similar note, Bobby O made a comment post game yesterday that Niese often wasn’t throwing the correct pitch for many situations and his pitch selection left something to be desired yesterday as well. Have no idea if that’s b/c Thole was calling for those pitches or Niese kept shaking him off so he could throw the type pitch he wanted.
stickguy
4/8/2011-10:44am at 10:44 am (UTC -4)
at the risk of getting Real all worked up again, isn’t it the responsibility of the scouts and PC to formulate the game plan for the pitcher, and sit down in advance and go over it? So that the catcher is doing what EVERYONE agreed to before the game?
obviously, if a particular pitch isn’t working, or the batters are doing something unexpected, they might discuss changing things up.
but it makes no sense for him to imply that the catcher is just winging it as he goes along. And if he was going off the reservation, you call him out to discuss, shake him off, or hell, the PC should be out talking to them.
TRS86
4/8/2011-10:50am at 10:50 am (UTC -4)
I think they did have a game plan for Pelfrey and either he did not follow it, did not execute or it was a bad plan. Simple Simon here.
stickguy
4/8/2011-10:54am at 10:54 am (UTC -4)
well, if he was not shaking off Thole, then the not following it option is off the table.
having seen some of the game, he was mostly putting fat pitches out over the heart of the plate. So I vote for execution, since I know that wasn’t the gameplan.
speaking of which, it is common for teams to pitch the Phils backwards (and they know it). So most likely, opening with a curve when they are sitting on the FB was the plan. Pelf just pitched like crapola.
stickguy
4/8/2011-10:49am at 10:49 am (UTC -4)
pelf not being able to pitch better than Ollie is a vastly bigger problem. Easy for them to pow wow and get on the same page (well, if they had a pitching coach with a clue maybe! that was for TRS).
but, why expect more? In the last 4 years before this season, on the road vs. NL east foes, pelf has started 20 games (so 2/3 of a season, not a small sample). In those games, he is 2-13, with a 6.65 ERA.
frankly, he did just about what you would expect him to do!
in retrospect, they took a risk starting a known headcase opening day (guy does not deal at all well with pressure), especially since it locked him into a 2nd game on the road. Probably should have started Dickey OD, and set up Pelf to have the home opener instead.
oh well. If he is here next year, you know damn well he won’t be starting opening day again!